Picture Credit: Twitter/PSL
The PSL 2021 which got postponed in the month of March due to COVID-19 has been rescheduled to start from 9th June. Both teams have won 3 of their 4 games and has been in a good shape in the first leg of the tournament so far. In this we will be looking at top 5 players who can perform well in the Match 15 of PSL 2021.
Let's take a look at the five players who can perform well based on overall PSL record and their T20 career performance.
1. Shaheen Afridi
Shaheen Afridi, the upcoming young star has been impressive in the first leg of PSL which happened in Feb-Mar 2021. He has picked 9 wickets from the 4 games that he has played, averaging 12.55. His impressive bowling figures in PSL 2021 include 3/14 against Peshawar Zalmi.
In PSL history, Shaheen Afridi has been impressive through the years and he has picked 43 wickets from 31 innings. It is also to be noted that in PSL 2020 he was the leading wicket-taker with 17 wickets to his name from 12 innings.
2. Rashid Khan
The star player despite having played very less number of games in PSL has been one of the greatest spinner to have played T20 format. Rashid Khan who just started off his T20 career in 2015 already has 360 wickets to his name which is 7th highest overall. Rashid Khan's bowling average of 17.36 has been the best for any bowler in T20s (Minimum 100 wickets).
His record in IPL speaks for himself. With him being the most economical bowler (economy of 6.23) in that league. The star player has set his bar as high as players coming along the lines of legendary West Indian bowler Sunil Narine.
3. Mohammed Hafeez
Mohammed Hafeez has been legend of the game in T20s since he started playing in 2005/06 and has created niche around himself. In the year 2020, he was at the best form of his life smashing 69, 86* against England in 2020 and also recorded his career best 99* vs NZ in Dec 2020. However, despite his poor T20I series against South Africa and Zimbabwe in April 2021, he is expected to make good comeback. In the first four games of PSL 2021, Hafeez has smashed 181 runs from 4 innings. He has been a solid middle-order batsman like his team-mate Shoaib Malik and his knock of 73* and 60 against Quetta and Multan Sultans has come evident.
4. Hasan Ali
Hasan Ali in his 4 games in PSL 2021 has impressed everyone so far. His bowling figures of 1/16 (4) vs Multan Sultans, 2/14 (4) vs Peshawar Zalmi (in a losing cause though) and 2/23 (4) vs Quetta Gladiators were much more to prove his ability in the course of PSL's first leg as a player.
Hasan Ali who will be playing his 50th game in PSL already has 65 wickets. After the suspension of PSL 2021, Hasan Ali has played 5 T20Is and has picked 11 wickets. In the last T20I he played, Ali recorded best bowling figure of 4/18 against Zimbabwe.
5. Colin Munro
Colin Munro who has missed out initial phase of PSL 2021 has joined Islamabad United team now and he has been another T20 legend to have scored around 7000 runs in T20s overall. His impressive S.R of 156.44 in T20Is has made him someone to look forward for a sparkling start at the top of the order. Munro in T20Is has a Strike Rate of 132 against pace bowling which is huge plus point and that helps him to conquer the powerplay overs thus ensuring his team get a sparkling start.
Although Munro hasn't played international cricket for Kiwi's for more than a year now but he remains to be the only reliable player with bat for his team Islamabad United.